


Through Newer Hands

by orphan_account



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Poland NT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 16:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2629316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quiet conversation about home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through Newer Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little drabble in honour of Poland's budding strike partnership.

Arkadiusz looks at Robert like the saint that he could have been, but that he isn't. It doesn't bother him, not too much, not until they're rooming together and the kid is watching his every move, trying to read him like a holy scripture. _Sorry to disappoint you, kid_ , he thinks, toeing off his trainers and falling back-first into the bed, _but there's nothing to see here_.

But there's plenty to ask, as it turns out, and Arkadiusz is bold despite the stars in his eyes. "Why'd you leave?" he asks, sometime past ten o'clock. "Poland, I mean." Robert is almost startled by the change in question, unready to cast his mind as far back as Lech.

"I went to Dortmund looking for an adventure, you know? I wanted something new." Robert says, and it's the truth. Arkadiusz lies quiet for a moment, hands resting together on his chest. It's not a judgmental silence because Robert knows that, despite what everyone else may think of him, here, with his teammates, his Poland teammates, they don't think the same. _You can't betray us_ , Kamil had laughed, elbowing him with a smile, _no matter how much you'd like to_.

"And did you?" Arkadiusz eventually pipes up with.

"What?"

"Find an adventure?"

Robert laughs, painfully sad, and it makes Arkadiusz sit up and look over at his hunching form, knees tight to his chest. "No, I found a home." Arkadiusz watches as Robert shakes his head, rests his chin on top of his knee.

Arkadiusz nods. "So now Bayern is your adventure," he says, stretching his legs back out, lying down on his side, head resting on a clenched fist. Robert watches him move, eyes wondering from the gleam of the bedside lamp on his forehead to his toes that twitch restlessly.

"Something like that."

"Something like that," Arkadiusz repeats, letting himself fall onto his back again, staring up at the ceiling. "I don't want that," he concludes, the silent thought process over in a matter of seconds. "I mean, the home part. That's what international duty is for. I feel at home, here, right now, and I don't think I could anywhere else. I think it's for the best." _No body gets hurt. I don't what to hurt anybody. I don't want to end up like you._

Arkadiusz gets a fright when suddenly his view of the ceiling is obscured by Robert's presence hanging over him, looking down at him with sharp blue eyes. Accidently, he gulps, and it makes Robert's face break out into a smile.

"You're a smart kid, Arek," he says, now with both hands on Arkadiusz' face.

"Are you going to kiss me or not?" Arkadiusz asks, airing on the side of petulant but softened by an almost playful smile. Robert does, perfect and precise like the way a header loops to make history, or how the ball leaves his foot and ripples the net like a holy ritual.

In truth, Robert does not feel bad about it in that moment, for as much as he is exploiting Arkadiusz' youthful misjudgment, the younger man too does exploit Robert's moment of weakness. It's a fair game, he decides, pulling back the few centimeters that Arkadiusz allows. "I hope you find what you're looking for," Arkadiusz says. "Maybe then you'll be happy." The younger man shifts, pulling Robert all the way down. "But in the meantime..."

"I'm happy enough."

"Me too."


End file.
